When we began social distancing in March in an effort to slow the spread of the novel Covid-19 coronavirus, it never occurred to me that there were unanticipated blessings waiting to be found in quarantine life. Coronavirus is a terrible illness that is negatively impacting countries around the world. Life as we know it has been turned topsy-turvy. The global economy is on a downward trajectory. Illness and death are widespread. In our country alone, as of yesterday, 1,360,705 people have tested positive for Covid-19 and 76,617 have died. During the past two weeks, many states have started to open up businesses that have been closed. Some churches are planning to start in person meetings again. Many epidemiologists and ordinary citizens are worried that we are reopening things too quickly and that this will result in a huge spike of new infections and deaths. I am one of the worried people. My husband and I are in a vulnerable age group. My 91-year-old mother, friends, and family members with compromised immune systems and chronic illnesses will almost certainly have serious complications if they contract Covid-19. My state is one of the places that has chosen to reopen most businesses with insufficient guidance as to how to do this safely and no plan for enforcing the few guidelines available. The idea that there might be space for reflection and blessing while all of this is going on seems farfetched and impossible.

There is something to do besides worry. I have discovered much to be thankful for during these unprecedented times. I have experienced blessings that I had certainly not anticipated. These are five of them.

The absolute slowing down of everything. We are retired so we had already slowed down to some degree. But we were still busy: traveling to visit family, planning trips in our motorhome, camping, shopping, working on household projects we had put off for years, running back and forth to church and community events, racing to finish writing projects, cramming in routine medical appointments, scheduling, planning, doing. We somehow were just as busy as we had been during our working years. All that came to a screeching halt when we went into social distancing and self-quarantine mode. We were forced by circumstances to slow down. In exchange, we received the gift of calmness, stillness, peace, and time for quiet reflection.

Spending quality time with my husband. Weather permitting, most days we go outside to sit on our deck in the afternoon. We talk, share snippets from books we are reading, listen to the birds chirping in the trees, feel the gentle breeze, check the progress of the plants and flowers shooting up in all the flowerpots, soak up the sunshine, watch the hummingbirds flit around the feeders, and enjoy the beauty of nature all around us. We rock in our deck chairs and appreciate the gift of just being, rather than doing.

Extended quality time with my mother. My mother has an apartment in an independent living facility in another city. When the coronavirus hit, she happened to be staying with us while she recuperated from a minor back injury. By the time she had recovered, her facility was beginning lockdown procedures. Instead of a thriving community of seniors enjoying lots of daily activities and social interaction, residents are confined to their apartments, all activities have been suspended, and no visitors are allowed. We decided it was better for her to continue to stay with us right now. I have been able to spend more consistent extended time with her during these past weeks than at any other time since I got married and moved away from home. We’ve talked, laughed, played games, and are thoroughly enjoying this time together.

Appreciation of intentional time with our children and grandchildren. We live in the same town as our daughter and her family so we saw each other frequently at church, running around town, going to our grandson’s basketball games together, dropping in and out of each other’s homes. Now we plan social distancing visits sitting six feet apart on her porch or our deck. Before we didn’t think about what a gift it is to live in such close proximity. Now that we have to plan our visits, they are more precious and meaningful. Our son and his family live about six hours from us. We visited each other every few months before Covid-19. We were planning a spring camping trip that included spending a week or two with them when the lockdown started. Now we visit by setting up zoom meetings. I'll never again take for granted the gift of spending unfettered time with those I love. I’m so thankful for technology that allows us to stay connected with family from a distance.

Online church services. Speaking of technology, livestreaming is a great blessing. I miss meeting in person with my sweet local church family. On the other hand, I’m getting to experience worship services all over the place each Sunday now. We drop in on our local church service, attend services at the largest Methodist church in America from our den, watch portions of services from churches where friends minister, and even zoom into churches meeting in South America where we know several pastors from our years of serving as resident missionaries in Colombia and volunteer missionaries in Ecuador. This past Sunday, I saw pastors and musicians sharing the Good News in English, Spanish, and Quichua.

Although our state is rapidly reopening, the science and the epidemiologists indicate that in our desperation to return to normal we are rushing forward too soon without a detailed concrete plan. While we wait for states and cities to come up with sensible guidelines for staying safe while reopening, we’ll shelter in place a while longer. And while we are waiting, we will continue to look for unexpected blessings. It's a wonderful way to bloom where we are planted, living a faith of hope and joy; even in these uncertain and unprecedented days.

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When I was a child, my Mother hid brightly colored foil wrapped miniature chocolate eggs tucked in nooks and crannies all over the living room for my brother and me to find on Easter morning. We had so much fun hunting the eggs and adding the treasures we found to our baskets. Afterwards, we ate breakfast (and chocolate), dressed up in our new clothes, went to church, and then to my grandmother’s house to enjoy a family feast with the aunts, uncles, and cousins. What memories do you have of childhood Easter mornings? What fun things do you do with your children and grandchildren?

I’m no longer a child. But I still love Easter. One of my favorite things about celebrating this special day is our church tradition of decorating the cross with flowers. All the black coverings placed over the altar on Maundy Thursday are removed, candles are lit, the cross is carried to the front of the church, and each member of our congregation goes to the cross to add a flower. It’s such a beautiful reminder that the darkness and death of the crucifixion have been replaced by the light and life of the resurrection.

Whatever traditions you usually enjoy with your extended family and your church family at Easter time, one thing is certain: Easter will look different this year. Churches are closed. Extended family gatherings are currently on hold. We are sheltering in place to protect our families and our communities from the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus that continues to infect and kill people all over the world.

I’ve been thinking during this Holy Week about what Easter must have looked like to the early disciples. Over the centuries, we have added so many layers of celebration and tradition that we can barely fathom what the followers of Jesus experienced on that first Easter.

They were sheltering in place in their homes grieving for what they thought they had lost. They were fearful of impending doom. Their leader had died. Would they be next? Life as they knew it was over. Jesus was dead and buried in a tomb. They wept and whispered and worried and wondered what the future held for them.

​And then Sunday came.​Early that morning, Mary Magdalene and some of the other women went to the tomb with spices to anoint the body of Jesus. They discussed how they would move the heavy rock that had been used to seal the tomb. When they arrived, the stone had been rolled away. They thought thieves had broken in and stolen the body of their beloved friend.

They ran back to the house where the disciples were hunkered down in fear and mourning to share this astonishing news. The news that changed everything. For them. And for us.

For the first time in over two thousand years, we have the opportunity to feel and understand down to our core what that first Easter must have been like. We are huddled in our homes, fearful of impending doom. Some of us have lost our jobs and incomes. Some of us have lost loved ones to this voracious disease. Some of us are sick ourselves. We’re contemplating what might happen next.

We can weep and whisper and worry and wonder what the future holds for us. Or we can let it go. We can let go of all the cousins coming over to dye eggs and the neighborhood egg hunt, and instead plan special treats and activities for our children in our individual homes. We can let go of in-person church gatherings. Instead, we can watch church Easter celebrations online and rejoice that thousands of others are watching services from thousands of churches online with us. We can let go of huge extended family dinners and instead create delicious intimate meals for our precious immediate families.

And after we let go, we can remember. Remember what the first resurrection Sunday felt like for the first disciples. Remember what Easter means without all the cultural trappings we have heaped upon it. Remember that while we are quarantined in these days of uncertainty, waiting for the darkness to lift, that we do not wait alone. Light and Hope wait with us. Because Jesus waits with us. And that's something worth celebrating every single day of the year while we bloom where we are planted as we grow a faith of hope and joy.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

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I’m an Enneagram 8: The Challenger. So, naturally, my go to response in most situations is to encourage folks to action, often quite emphatically. It’s so innately my normal default position, that I don’t even realize I’m doing it most of the time.

Under normal circumstances, if I were writing a devotional on the importance of loving our neighbors, I would challenge you to get out and get busy with lots of suggestions for hands on ministry and engagement with those in need.

But these are not normal circumstances. We are living in the middle of a pandemic of the Covid-19 coronavirus. To stop the spread, it is essential to practice social distancing, cancel events, and stay at home. So, how do we love our neighbors well during this once in a lifetime event? I have ten suggestions.

Stay informed. Check out current recommendations on the websites for the Centers for Disease Control at CDC and the World Health Organization at WHO. Check out your state and city websites and listen to local news channels for the current Covid-19 status in your specific area. If you post updates on social media, share the facts instead of misleading memes.

Check on your elderly family members and neighbors. They may not have access to online information. They may need groceries delivered. They may run out of routine medications. They may get sick with the virus or some other illness and need help getting medical care.

Encourage your church to cancel all services and in person meetings. If you have skills for livestreaming, videography, running audio equipment, music, etc., volunteer your expertise to help your congregation provide alternatives to group meetings. This is a unique situation that requires a unique creative response. We can go back to meeting as congregations after this crisis is over. At my local church, two families have volunteered to help our pastor with a video message. They will play the piano, run the audio, share music, and help get our pastor’s message to our church members.

Continue ministries to those in need if it can be done in a way that limits contact and reduces the chances of contagion. My church has a food pantry which provides food for 200-300 people. Usually, those who are going to receive the food, meet in our fellowship hall, members of the congregation interact with them, others pack food sacks based on each person’s family size when they arrive and check in, and the men of the church help carry the food out to cars. The fellowship hall is a beehive of activity with hundreds of people crammed into one space. That’s not acceptable during a pandemic. This month, bags will be prepacked by a handful of people a day before the food pantry opens. We won’t be able to specifically target family size, but each family will get something. The folks who come to receive the food will be asked to wait in their cars and then come to the door of the fellowship hall one at a time to receive their food.

Check on children in your local school system who depend on school breakfasts and lunches. My county has developed a Covid-19 food plan. Meals will be prepared by each school’s CNP staff. They will be delivered between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. every Monday while school remains closed. Students who ride the buses will have 5 breakfasts and 5 lunches delivered to them by our bus drivers running their regular routes. Car riders will come to the school to pick up the 5 meals during this same time frame. Meals will be delivered to vehicles waiting in the car pick up line.

Call friends and family members. Face time on your phone. Send texts. View this as an opportunity to find creative ways to deepen relationships by catching up with one another.

Send letters to nursing home residents who are quarantined. Mail encouraging cards to healthcare providers who are on the front lines of responding to this unprecedented crisis. Wash your hands and disinfect pens before writing so that you won’t unwittingly pass along germs.

Stay at home. We are a country of rugged individualists not accustomed to considering the greater good of the whole community. It will be difficult to change our habits, but we can do it. You may not be at high risk to catch the virus, but there are a lot of vulnerable people around you who are. High risk people include anyone over the age of 60, folks with an underlying condition like asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and anyone who has a suppressed immune system due to cancer, medications, or autoimmune illnesses. The choices you make will affect everyone around you.

If you have to leave your home to go to work, buy groceries, or check on family members, practice scrupulous hygiene. Wash your hands. Change clothes when you get home and wash what you wore outside. Clean doorknobs, car door handles, your phone, and anything else you touch. Keep at least 6 feet between you and folks you see. Loving your neighbor while you are out and about means waving and smiling from a distance.

Do your part to flatten the curve. The greatest danger we face is our healthcare system being overwhelmed by thousands of people seeking care at the same time when the disease spike occurs. It’s estimated that only 20% of the people who catch coronavirus will require hospitalization. If as few as 1% of our population catches Covid-19, that will be over 3 million people. If only 20% of that 3 million require hospitalization, that will be over 600,000 people. We don’t have 600,000 extra hospital beds and ventilators nor enough medical personnel to take care of that many seriously sick folks at one time. Stay at home. Flatten the curve. Love your neighbor as yourself by thinking of their needs, as well as your own.

We don’t know how long we will need to self-quarantine. We don’t know when the disease will peak. Right now, we don’t even have enough testing capability to know how many of us are already infected and passing the disease on to others every single day. What we do know as believers is that God is with us and we have no need to fear. Finding creative ways to love our neighbors during this epidemic is one way to bloom where we are planted as we grow a faith of hope and joy.

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Spring is blooming all over my yard. Dozens of daffodils are popping up on the hill, the quince bush is full of blossoms, and the pear trees are starting to bud. The diversity of the creative energy of God always amazes me. When he decided to make flowers, he didn’t make just one species. Our planet overflows with flowers in a splendid array of shapes, sizes, and colors.

God treasures diversity, not only in flowers, but also in the people who populate our world. Each one of us was made to reflect a tiny bit of the image of God.

Over seven billion people from thousands of ethnic groups live on earth. God is so much greater than we can imagine and so far beyond our ability to comprehend, it takes people of many different races and cultures to even begin to reflect a tiny smidgen of his image. ​One of my faith goals is to treasure diversity as much as God does. I need to see the wonder and beauty in those who are different from me, appreciate diverse ethnic groups from around the world, and practice love and acceptance for all people everywhere. This is not a natural human response to those who look, sound, or act differently than us. We are sometimes fearful of people who have a different worldview than ours. This fear is amplified by news outlets seeking increased ratings, politicians manipulating voters to get elected, and thousands of posts each day on social media. Nonetheless, if I say that I'm a Christian, I need to have the attitude of Christ. The Son of God was sent into our messy, fearful world to show us how deep and wide and high God's love is for every single person he created and to teach us how to relate to one another in that love.

The creation story says that each day when God completed his creative work for that day, "God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1 NIV). I can see this goodness when I focus on the creative energy of God, meditate on the life of Jesus, and rely on the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within me. If I mindfully appreciate the blossoming spring flowers, I will clearly see the beauty all around me. And if I intentionally look for what is beautiful and good in all of the people God created, I will surely find it.

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This is Valentine’s week. Whether you enjoy it, or can’t wait for it to pass on by, February 14 will roll around this Friday. Cyberspace is already cluttered with love memes, gifs, wisecracks, sweet sentiments, and gift suggestions.

I treasure the blessing of being surrounded by loving people. I've known my husband since we were children. We have been married for forty-seven years and he still rocks my world, makes my toes curl up when he kisses me, and enriches my life with love and laughter.

In addition to marital bliss, I am blessed with the love of family and friends. I don’t take that for granted. I know what a gift love is in our fractured world. I am especially thankful for the agape love of God, our Father, that we see so beautifully expressed in the life and ministry of Jesus, the Son.

​Although love was certainly in the air as I clicked my way around the net this morning, there was also a jarring juxtaposition of hate. On the same social media sites brimming with love and good will, there were messages and memes rife with rancor, hate, judgment, and divisiveness. Some of these venomous posts were made by people who claim to be followers of Jesus. This puzzles me. How can those who claim to love God express hatred for so many of the people God created?

What causes this great disconnect? I mulled over the implications of the dichotomy of love and hate as I dusted this afternoon. I have a collection of nativities from all over the world that I keep out year-round. There are currently thirty-seven of them displayed on a wall of shelves in our den. I reminisced about where we had found each one as I picked up all the Marys and Josephs and angels and shepherds and wise men and babes in a manger made of wood and clay and bread dough and glass and pewter and stone. I dusted each piece and put each one back in place on the shelves. In the process, I touched Jesus thirty-seven times.

Oh.

The amazing force of the gospel of love is never released until we touch Jesus and he touches us. Until that happens, we only have religion and religion is never enough to overcome hate. Religion consists of rules and regulations. It allows us to use God as an excuse for bigotry and exclusion in the name of piety. God becomes little more than an extension of our political position, the head of another civic organization, a symbol to validate our prejudices and judgmental views.​God does not call us to be religious. He calls us to have a relationship with him through his Son, Jesus. This relationship requires us to love every person whether we want to or not. It commands us to forgive, accept, embrace, and include even when it is inconvenient and outside our comfort zone. Having a relationship with Jesus is the only way to know his heart of love. It is the only way to channel that love to everyone he brings into our circle of life.

We need to remember that before we say something snarky about a person or group, post something hateful online, or look down our noses at anyone in the wide world around us. The commercial day for celebrating love will be over after Friday. But the time for celebrating the truth of the love of God never ends. The only way to stay in touch with real love is to stay in touch with Jesus through learning about his life and ministry, spending time with him in prayer, and seeking to become more like him by looking for ways to bless others. Learning to love like Jesus is an excellent way to bloom where we are planted, living a faith of hope and joy.

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Holiday decorations appeared on the store shelves in early September. I spied the first festively themed movie on TV in October. Folks discussed on social media whether the day after Halloween was too early to put up the tree. My Christmas cactus started blooming last month.

This made me wonder: How do we know when Christmas has come? Is the season here when we put up our Christmas trees and start decorating our homes? Does Christmas arrive whatever day we have our celebration with family and friends to open gifts together? And which day will that be anyway? Some families wouldn't think of getting together any day except December 25th. Others have established a tradition of sharing a meal and presents the weekend before or after Christmas day. My clan is gathering during New Year's week. So, when does Christmas come?

I suppose a lot depends on how we define Christmas. If the season only means decorations, buying and wrapping lots of gifts, baking cookies and pies, holiday parties, Santa, reindeer, carols, and cramming way too much activity into one short month - then the holiday may rush toward us crowding our days until we are exhausted. We survive our celebrations, then we gather up the wreckage of wrapping paper, put away the decorations, and breathe a sigh of relief until December rolls around again.

But what if that is not all there is? In the Dr. Seuss tale, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," the Grinch has a moment of epiphany:

Ah.There's the thing. Maybe Christmas means a whole lot more than a fun holiday to lighten up the cold dark winter days of December. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the traditional hustle and bustle of our cultural Christmas. Sharing a joyful time and making memories with people we love is a gift and a blessing. But there is also a perspective for much greater significance to this season in these words from the gospel of Luke.

No one knows the exact date when Jesus was born. It could have been any month of the year. Churches traditionally celebrate the birth of the Christ Child in December.The date hardly matters.The event itself is what is so amazing.God ripped away the distance between himself and the people he created. He shattered time and space, crossed the great divide, and came to us in human form. Why?

The all powerful, holy, creator, King of the universe loves us. He created us to have lives overflowing with joy, grace, hope, and truth. He fills us with purpose and possibilities. And the moment we realize this, whatever month or day of the year it happens to be - Christmas has come.

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It is toxic for my faith to pretend everything is okay when it's not. It is good for my spirit when I'm honest with God. Hey, I might as well be. He knows everything I'm thinking and feeling anyway. It is liberating and healthy for my soul to pray the truth. Once upon a time, I had a really bad, terrible, frustrating day. So I talked to God about it. I told him my truth and he told me his.

We had just moved to a bigger city for my husband to teach in the medical school there. I was excited to have more shopping options than I was accustomed to in my small hometown. But, my enthusiasm waned rather quickly that morning. On that difficult and exasperating day, my prayer went something like this.

Dear Lord,

I've had it. I'm done.I think I am now officially allergic to everything but air. I guess that will be next. Okay, so I've gotten used to the shellfish allergy thing. It has limited my lifestyle considerably since it has progressed to the point that I can no longer walk into a restaurant that serves shellfish or a grocery store that sells fresh seafood because now even that tiny amount of exposure causes a severe allergic reaction. I've adjusted. I just don't go to those places anymore. I've tried to focus on what I can do instead of what I can't and be thankful that I can still eat out occasionally at the handful of restaurants that don't serve shellfish. But it is so frustrating to not be able to go to a potluck dinner at church or out to eat with friends because I might be exposed to something that could make me sick, or you know, kill me. I feel so isolated sometimes.

And why do I have to be allergic to all these insects? I live in the south for crying out loud.There are bees, spiders, gnats, and all manner of stinging, biting little critters everywhere. And it never gets cold enough to kill them off until January or February, and some years not even then.Today pushed me right over the edge.

A spider or a gnat or some other small creature I can't see bites me while I browse through the produce section inside of Walmart. I take a Benadryl tablet and hope that will be enough to prevent an anaphylactic reaction.

I drag myself out to the car in utter disbelief. It's the second time this has happened. This month. Inside ofWalmart. My soul is so utterly downcast. Will I have to become a hermit and never leave my house again?

I drive home and plop down on the couch completely defeated. My face, tongue and throat are swollen.There is pressure in my chest. So I pop another Benadryl and grab my EpiPen and wait. I think about how it's beyond ironic that the epinephrine in the EpiPen is one of the many medicines that cause bad side effects for me. I won't use it unless absolutely necessary. I unscrew the cap and prepare to jab myself in the thigh if needed.The tachycardia I get from the epinephrine is less traumatic than the whole, you know, stopping breathing thing from the allergic reaction. While I wait, enveloped in a disorienting fog from taking two doses of Benadryl, I notice the Kindle on the table beside me and decide to look at my Facebook page.The very first thing I see is a Bible verse posted by a friend.

"Don't be afraid for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up." Isaiah 41:10 NLT

Oh.

I see. I remember. You created everything: shellfish, spiders, gnats, me. You are with me. You are my God. You give me strength and help. You hold me up. So, I choose to be hopeful instead of discouraged, grateful instead of complaining, trusting instead of afraid.

The Benadryl finally works its magic. I put away the EpiPen and meditate on your goodness, on all the ways you bless me. Thank you that I can pour out my frustration, my thoughts, my problems, my truth, my heart to you. Thank you, thank you, thank you that I can come before you with whining and afterward walk out into whatever else this day holds with singing.

Amen and Amen.

Praying honestly is one of the ways I am learning to bloom where I am planted, living a faith of hope and joy.
​

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When I was a child, we invented an entertaining game that all of the neighborhood kids loved to play at night. It was a variation of hide-and-seek that we called "Shine the Light." We scattered giggling into the darkness while the person who was "it" chased us down wielding a flashlight and tagged us by zapping us in the face with its bright beam. Some of the kids fought over who got to hold the flashlight first. Not me. I liked to be one of the hiders. I checked to see where the light was bouncing off the trees and sidewalks and ran in the opposite direction.

I play that game sometimes with God. He shines his light for me to see quite clearly the path I should follow. Instead, I gallivant off onto a completely different road. I even play a subtle variation where I spend days, weeks, months, even years, pretending to prayerfully struggle to know God's will, but it's just, you know, too hard to discover. ​The only problem with that game is that it is never one God plays. My loving Father wants me to know his plan for my life. He doesn't hide himself or his will from me. If I need guidance about relationships, career choices, where I should live, ministry options, or how to negotiate the chaos of daily life, God always directs my steps when I turn my heart and mind toward him.

When I want to understand God’s will for my specific circumstances, I have found these three strategies to be helpful.

I look at what is written in God's Word.The Bible is a great resource for understanding who God is and who he calls me to be in him. It commands me to love my enemies, forgive those who have wronged me, welcome the stranger, visit those in prison, help widows and orphans, feed the hungry, and love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. There is no ambiguity in those instructions.

I stay in touch with other believers.Sharing my thoughts and questions with Christian friends and family, members of my small group at church, and those involved in all kinds of ministry brings clarity. I read a wide variety of books, articles, and blogs. I often gain the most insight from writers who have a different faith perspective than me. They help me see things in a different light.​I remember that God's will is always a persistent and growing awareness.Years ago, when we were trying to decide which country God wanted us to live in to serve as international missionaries, an older missionary told us that he had learned God's call comes to different people in a lot of different ways but there is always one factor that is the same. There is a persistent and growing awareness that this is what God wants for you. The initial holy nudge you feel to go in a certain direction has staying power and that impression grows over time.

I am so thankful that God doesn't hide. He wants me to know him. He wants to show me his plan for my life. I just have to look for all the places he is shining his Light and walk toward the road he illuminates. It’s one of the ways I learn to bloom where I am planted living a faith of hope and joy.

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I gain perspective and insight from reading the Bible in different translations. I often have five different versions of scripture scattered about the desk when I study a specific passage seeking deeper meaning and clarity. Long ago, when I was a wee little baby boomer child, I only had the King James Version. So, one of the first Bible verses I ever memorized is etched in my mind in these ancient words.

Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. – Ephesians 4:32​

I imagine the teachers who shared that verse with a roomful of rowdy children used it to remind us of practical applications in our childhood world: don’t hog all the crayons, stop yelling at each other, share the bottles of glue, don’t hit the other children, invite everyone to the table, pass the plate of cookies around to everybody, use kind words to speak to each other. ​I’ve been watching newscasts, scrolling through my Facebook feed, reading tweets, and listening to folks talk to each other at the mall. It is painfully obvious that we have forgotten how to be kind to one another.

As believers who seek to follow the way of Jesus, we are commanded to be kind, to be tenderhearted and caring toward others, and to practice forgiveness. The Bible clearly says it; but, oh my, how often we refuse to do it. What’s happened to kindness? Why do people who call themselves Christians hurl hateful words at other people? I see this happen repeatedly in the routines of daily life. In the past month, I’ve heard an impatient customer berate a fast food worker, listened to a father scream at his children in the mall, read vicious rants on my social media feed, and overheard a group of women using vile epithets to talk about a group of teenagers from a cultural group different than their own.The decibel level of hateful rhetoric seems particularly loud in the political arena, which might be anticipated, and in many churches, where one might hope that the hatefulness of the world would not so consistently intrude.

In PoliticsWe live in a wonderful country.The American landscape is enriched by a vibrant tapestry of lovely people from different backgrounds and ethnic traditions who express widely diverse opinions and ideas. Sadly, we have abandoned civil discussion. We seem to have lost our ability to conduct conversations that lead to consensus and compromise.Those who support a different party, have a different opinion, come down on a different side of any issue are labeled by the opposition as morons, stupid, communists, socialists, fascists, bimbos, radicals, blowhards, liars, dummies, criminals, racists, idiots, dangerous, traitors, fools.

That's irresponsible language for anyone to use. It's especially jarring and offensive when it spews out of the mouths of those who claim to be followers of Jesus.

I hear Christian people say, "I have the right to my opinion." True enough. We live in a country where we are free to say what we think without recrimination. However, as Christians, we give up our right to our own opinions the moment we give ourselves to God. Christians are to be little Christs who live like Jesus. The act of following in his steps requires that we surrender our wants and our words to his will.

Jesus asks us to live a life marked by love, kindness, gracious speech, forgiveness, and caring about other people. It is possible to hold passionate political positions and still exercise kindness, grace, and love if we are mindful about the way we express our political views.

In ChurchesThere is an alarming trend in many churches today. Supporting a cause and a political position has become more important than following Jesus and loving people. The poor are suspected, the marginalized are neglected, and thinkers are rejected. Diversity has been thrown out. Conformity to a particular worldview has become the standard for righteousness.

Jesus said the world will know we belong to him by seeing how much we love each other. Cause driven churches who abandon the way of Jesus in favor of supporting a specific cultural view have done more to damage the reputation of Christ than all the unbelievers in the world put together. When I discuss faith matters with folks who either have never gone to church, or used to attend but have walked away, the single most prevalent reason I hear for this decision is that churches have become too politicized on both the left and the right. Folks look at these kinds of churches and see belief systems, political affiliations, dogmatic theological opinions, and lists of rules and regulations. But, they don't see Jesus there.

Churches compelled by the love of Jesus focus on people rather than political causes. Churches that want to be like Jesus welcome everyone: strangers, immigrants, refugees, people of every race, the rich and the poor, the sick and suffering, the physically and mentally challenged, traditionalists and creative thinkers, crying children, rowdy teenagers, single parents and blended families, the elderly, the lonely, widows and orphans, sinners and saints.Jesus invites every single person on the face of the earth to come to him. His bride, the Church, should do the same.

Dwelling on the current political quagmire and focusing on churches that have veered off course is depressing and nonproductive. So, I think I'll go meditate a while on Ephesians 4:32. And I'll do my best to not hog all the crayons, stop yelling at others, share the bottles of glue, invite everyone to the table, pass the plate of cookies around to everybody, and use kind words to speak to those around me. It’s a good way for me to learn to bloom where I am planted living a faith of hope and joy.

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We were on our way to the beach for a family vacation when we stopped for lunch at a Mennonite restaurant with delicious food and delightful crafts and artwork. We discovered a framed print while browsing through their gift shop that we liked the moment we saw it because it so clearly expresses one of the truths of our faith journey.

The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you.

The print hung in my husband’s medical office for decades and has been displayed in our home since he retired. I’ve been looking at it today and thinking about the place where God's will intersects with God’s grace.

The Will of God

When we are trying to figure out God's will for our lives, we can count on three things.

God wants us to know his will. God wants to show us how to live our best life. It’s not like he’s trying to hide his plan from us. He speaks to us through the Bible, other people, books, circumstances, experience, and the patterns for living Jesus gave us during his time here on earth. We just have to listen and pay attention.

Our Good Father never wants to harm us.Some people will tell you that everything that happens in life is God's will. That's one of those "churchy" clichés that sounds good on the surface but lacks substance when you dig deeper. Some folks claim sickness, death, cancer, accidents, storms, destruction, election results, volcanic eruptions, and all manner of trauma and disaster are God’s will. That’s not true. It is not the nature of God to harm the people he creates and loves. And he loves every person in the world.Here's one example. Is it God's will that certain people die in a tornado? No. Atmospheric patterns on our planet cause violent weather events. Sometimes, people in the path of a storm are injured or killed. I've been struck by lightning. Inside my house. Twice. Did God hurl those lightning bolts at me? No. Both times, I was washing dishes at my kitchen sink right beside a window in a house located on top of a hill. It is the nature of lightening to seek water and high ground. (Side note: I’m officially off dish washing duty on stormy days now. In fact, a random cloud scuttling across the sky is enough to persuade me that chore can wait.)

We are free to follow our own way instead of the way of Jesus. God has a plan for our lives that he wants to clearly show us. He sent his Son Jesus into the world to model how we are to relate to God and to other people. But he doesn’t force us to be like Jesus. He always gives us the option to choose his way or our own.Jesus says, "Love your enemies," but instead of doing that we can make lists of entire groups of people to hate. Jesus says, "Forgive just as I have forgiven you." But instead we can refuse to let go of grudges against people we feel have done us wrong. The more we shout that we have rights and demand our own way the harder it becomes to live like Jesus, see God's plan, and understand his will.

The Grace of God

The grace of God encompasses all he is and all that he freely wants to give us in and through our relationship with him. We have continual access to his presence through prayer. He loves us unconditionally and completely just as we are. We can’t do anything to make God love us more. And we can’t do anything to make him love us less.

God wants to bless us with abundant life in him. God’s grace is the free gift of his love, forgiveness, peace, mercy, truth, and light. He will never lead us where his grace cannot keep. guard, protect, enable, reassure, sustain, and hold us in the goodness of his hand.

Grace and peace to each of you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May we bloom as we discover his will, living a faith of hope and joy.

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Free Newsletter! Join the Practical Priorities Email Friends Crew to get real food recipes, fibromyalgia recovery strategies, healthy living tips, devotional of the month, and practical life hacks about everything delivered right to your inbox. Just fill in your email address, check the box to opt in, and click subscribe to newsletter. (Note: My newsletter service will only send out newsletters to those who check the box.) Thanks for joining the growing Practical Priorities community!